


the curve of the sunset

by iamnotacreative



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Band Bonding, F/M, Feel-good, Fluff, No Plot/Plotless, Sunrises, Sunset Curve (Julie and The Phantoms), Sunsets, just cute, tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 22:54:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30146847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamnotacreative/pseuds/iamnotacreative
Summary: Julie has been swamped. She likes thinking that she's organized her schedule efficiently enough to do everything, but she's spread herself thin and it's starting to show. Luke's solution? Taking a break and watching the sunset with his favorite girl, under the guise of 'band bonding.'
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 75





	the curve of the sunset

Julie has been swamped. Between school, dance practice, band practice, writing, and volunteering to help with Carlos’s fundraiser, Julie is spread thin. She’s falling asleep in class, she’s tripping over Nick’s feet in dance, her neck is cramping up faster than usual, she’s almost running out of breath at practice... but she’s doing it with a smile on her face and as much energy as she can muster. 

Luke first notices it when she yawns in the middle of a writing session. He pauses mid-sentence, watching all the muscles in her jaw flex and the cute way she turns into her shoulder to just barely hide it. He’s almost hurt for all of a split second before he spots the bags starting to form under her eyes. To be honest, he can’t remember the last time he felt exhausted, one of the perks of being a ghost. He doesn’t envy her. 

“Alright,” he announces, clapping once and making Julie jump. “Break time.”

Julie looks at him confusedly but slouches back into the pillows on her armchair. 

“Uh-uh,” Luke shakes his head and puts his guitar in its stand beside him. “You, on the couch.” 

Julie raises an eyebrow at him. “Excuse me?” 

He points to “his” couch, as if that’s where the confusion lies. “Time to take a nap,” he grins.

Julie’s eyebrow doesn’t lower. “Why?” 

“Because you’re tired?” Luke says like it’s obvious. He shrugs. “So nap time.” 

“I’m not tired,” Julie objects immediately. “I’m fine, we’re writing, this song is gonna slap.”

“You’re damn right it is,” Luke agrees with a beaming smile, ignoring the description that definitely sounds like she’s sleep deprived. “And it’s going to be even better once we go back over it with some sleep in you.”

He offers his hand, and Julie looks at it wistfully. She raises her hand and watches it drop through the ghost of his. Releasing the breath she never realizes she holds every time she tries to touch one of them, she stands and she pivots. 

“I’m fine, Luke, really. Let’s get this bridge done! I love the lyrics but I feel like the tone doesn’t really match the chorus,” she follows Luke as he moves to sit on the couch himself, and without really thinking about it she drops down next to him. “but that could also change when we put keys behind it.” 

“I feel the same,” Luke agrees, getting comfortable on the couch. “But I think once we get Reggie’s lyrical genius in here it’s gonna shoot through the roof!”

Julie gives him a weird look, like she can’t determine whether what he said doesn’t make any sense or if it does but she just doesn’t understand it because she’s tired. She shakes her head, ignoring it for now. “Where is he anyway?” she looks around at the empty studio. “And Alex too.”

Luke shrugs as she drops her head onto the back of the couch, neck not wanting to support it anymore. “I dunno where Reg is. Alex is out with Willie somewhere,” he tears his eyes away from her when she yawns again. “You know for someone with so much anxiety he sure loses track of time a lot.”

“I think that also has a bit to do with Willie too,” Julie tells him, the beginning of the sentence mumbled through the yawn. 

“Ooh,” Luke grins, turning toward her. “So it’s not just me who thinks they’re cute together.”

Julie rolls her eyes. “I’ve never met Willie, all of my information about them is from you, numbnuts.”

“Ouch with the name-calling, Julie,” Luke teases her gently, watching her eyelids get heavier. As if she just realizes what her eyes are doing, she blinks hard and then blinks another ten times as if it’ll snap her eyes to attention. It doesn’t really work.

“Go to sleep, Julie,” Luke encourages her. 

“Nooo,” she whines, though her eyes are already drooping closed. “We’re writing.” 

“And we’ll keep writing once Reggie gets here,” he tells her, reaching for a blanket to lay over her. “He’s on his way. We’ll finish when you wake up, I promise.”

“You’ll wake me up when he gets here?” she asks, voice heavy with sleep. 

“Sure,” he grins, no intention to do such a thing. 

“Mmkay,” she breathes, out in a matter of seconds. 

Reggie pops in a minute later, loud and with an enthusiastic explanation on the tip of his tongue. 

“Shhhhh!” Luke shushes him aggressively, jumping up from the couch and moving closer to him. “Julie’s sleeping.”

“I thought you were supposed to be writing,” Reggie says in a still pretty loud stage whisper. 

“She looks exhausted,” Luke shrugs, looking back at her peaceful face resting on the back of his couch. Reggie looks too and his face softens fondly. “She needs it more than we need to write.”

Reggie looks at Luke watching her with soft eyes and gives him a sideways smile. Luke glances at him and awkwardly clears his throat, reluctantly peeling his eyes from her. 

“Anyway, wanna see what we were working on while you were late?”

Reggie makes an indignant noise. “I have a very valid reason for that,” he defends, but his shifty eyes say differently. He pivots. “Did you want to wait for Julie?”

“We can go over it at least, get some ideas flowing,” Luke grins. “I told her we’d finish when she wakes up.”

They don’t though, because she winds up sleeping through the night and immediately heads off to school the next morning, sending him an apology on her way out.

Luke stops her again a week later. 

“Let’s skip band practice today,” he announces to the room of people already gathered for said band practice.

Julie frowns. Alex freezes, drumsticks in midair three inches from hitting his drum. A D chord from Reggie’s bass reverberates around the room. 

“Why?” Julie asks, needing to fill the silence that entered the room.

Luke shrugs. “We could use a break, and you’ve been busy.” Julie scrunches her nose like that’s not really a reason. “Let’s relax,” he drums his fingers on the armchair in front of him, thinking. He snaps suddenly and points up like the most cartoonish lightbulb just went off. “Let's watch the sunset!”

“Practice is kind of relaxing,” she mumbles in objection. “Plus half the time we don’t even rehearse we just jam.”

“Come on Jules,” Luke runs up to her, and leans down a bit, grinning from ear to ear. She doesn’t think he’s ever called her that before but she doesn’t think she minds it. “We’ve got our whole lives to rehearse. And when was the last time you watched the sunset? Any of us?” He spreads his arms out to the room and immediately ignores Alex saying  _ ‘last week,’  _ and Reggie mumbling something along the lines of  _ ‘i dunno but we don’t really have to sleep so probably by accident not that long ago.’  _

“It’s band bonding,” he continues to Julie and Julie only.

Julie twists her lips to the side as she contemplates the idea. It has been a while since she’s watched the sunset, but she’s never really had the urge to stop and watch it. Luke gives her a bright little smile and two thumbs up as she looks at him. She has to look away, his dumb face always makes her want to do anything he suggests, things she normally wouldn’t. Instead she looks around asking a silent question to Reggie and Alex, who puts his flat hand under his chin and smiles innocently. Julie rolls her eyes. He must have learned that one from Willie. She pulls her bottom lip into her mouth slightly, chewing it in her contemplation. 

“Fine, on-” she gets cut off when they all cheer, clearly on the same page. “Only if everyone is cool with it.” 

They cheer again, and Julie rolls her eyes again, the answer to that question answered easily.

Somehow she finds herself on the roof of the studio, over-focusing on keeping her balance on the not-very-slanted roof. She’s never been up there before, not knowing why she ever would in the first place, and briefly tries to remember if she’s afraid of heights. She’s never really been up all that high. Nevertheless, when she sees Alex at the edge of the roof, leaning back on his arms and letting his legs swing over the edge she stops dead in her tracks and sits in the middle of the roof a safe distance away from where she could see the ground. 

Who’s idea was it to come up here again?

Julie sits with her legs drawn in, hugging her knees. She’s a little tense, but when Luke plops down beside her, having climbed out (through) the window after her, she feels herself relax. Reggie comes out after him and splits the distance between where Alex is and where Luke and Julie are. He drops down to sit cross legged and beam at them. 

“Why have we never been up here before?” he asks into the air. 

“Why would we just randomly hang out on the roof?” Alex turns to him, skeptical. 

Reggie shrugs. “Lots of people hang out on roofs. Rooves?,” he pauses, turning into himself. “No… neither of those sound right…” 

“ _ Roofs, _ ” Julie continues for him, giving him a knowing smirk. “Have kind of been romanticized sometimes. Like in those old 90s movies-”

She’s cut off with a tiny shriek that comes from Alex and an accompanying surprised groan that makes her turn sideways to look confusedly at Luke’s semi-distraught face. 

“ _ Old 90s _ movies?!” Reggie scoffs playfully, putting an insulted hand to his chest and realization dawns on Julie. 

“Oh my gosh, you guys,” she says it like she’s apologetic but there’s laughter in her voice. “You guys would be so old right now.” 

Alex releases an indignant huff in her direction and she laughs. 

“What year are you guys from again?” she teases. 

“2020,” Luke pouts beside her. She raises an eyebrow at him, grinning evilly. Luke slouches further into himself. “1995,” he mumbles.

“Ah the late 1900s,” she’s met with another loud groan from all three of them. “Aw you guys look good for your age!”

“I hate that,” Alex tells her. “I hate that a lot.” 

“Yeah,” Reggie agrees. “Who knew you could be so mean?”

Julie laughs loudly and it sounds like music to Luke’s ears. He could listen to her all day if she’d let him.

“You know I love you guys,” she smiles innocently at them. 

“Yeah yeah,” Alex crosses his arms and pouts just to make her feel bad. It works but only a little. “We love you too,” he smiles back at her after a moment. 

Julie winks at him and he smiles brighter, legs swinging happily over the edge of the roof. He freezes. Oh gosh is he a dog?

Julie shivers involuntarily. It’s March and the winter weather in LA hasn’t quite let up yet. It’s not cold yet, but with the sun about to go down it’s a little chilly for her short sleeves. 

“Are you cold?” Luke asks immediately. He watches goosebumps rise on her skin and suddenly misses the experience of feeling things. Being ghosts, they don’t feel cold or hot, hunger, even touch is limited to certain things and the very few other ghosts they know. He suddenly craves being able to shiver. 

“No,” Julie shakes her head, snapping him out of it. “I’m okay for now.”

Reggie scrambles up. “But you will as the sun goes down,” he grins sideways and points a winky finger at her. “I’ll grab you a blanket.”

“Reggie,” she shakes her head. “No it’s fine. I can grab one later.”

Reggie waves her off. “Don’t be silly, Julie. We can poof in and out of places. I’ll be back in half a second.” Before Julie can say anything else Reggie poofs out, then poofs back in, arms spread wide and… empty. 

“Here you… oh..?” Reggie flips his arms over again and again, like that’ll solve the mystery of the blanket that was supposed to be in his arms. “Huh.”

He poofs in and out again, arm still empty. He tries again. And again. On the fifth try Alex interrupts just to make it stop.

“I don't think it’s working, Reg,” he announces loudly.

Reggie pouts. 

“Maybe we can’t poof with real life things, just the things that are connected to us,” Luke reasons. “Like our clothes and our instruments are connected to our souls, but Julie’s blankets aren’t.”

Luke poofs out for a moment and returns, also empty-handed. 

“Huh,” Alex echoes.

“Okay, okay,” Reggie holds up two fingers like he has an idea he’s excited about, turning to look at all of them with a grin then poofs out. 

Luke and Alex share a skeptical look and Luke shrugs. 

“Hey!” they hear and Alex whips his head around, looking for Reggie’s voice. “Alex catch!” Alex looks down to find Reggie outside the doors to the studio, poised to throw the blanket up toward him. Reggie throws the bundled up blanket like a football, but it doesn’t make it very far. Alex reaches on instinct and surprise panic to catch the blanket that doesn’t even make it close to the roof, and almost falls off himself with a tiny scream. 

“Aw nuts,” they hear from the ground. 

Julie and Luke crawl closer to the edge to see what’s going on, and watch Reggie bundle the blanket back into a ball, squat with it between his legs, then launch it up as far as he can with a grunt of effort. It makes it further than last time, but still not far enough for any of them to be able to reach. 

“Maybe just walk it up, Reg,” Julie calls down to him. 

“No I can do this!” Reggie yells back. “Alex lay on your stomach so you can reach further!” 

“Hmm,” Alex pretends to contemplate it. “No.”

“Alex,” Reggie whines, betrayal in his voice. Then his face lights up again. “Oh!” 

Luke, Julie, and Alex sit back and watch as Reggie throws the blanket up again, poofs up to the roof, hanging off the edge on his stomach reaching close, so close to the blanket, then watching it fall back down again. 

“Dang,” he breathes, and before they can relay any feedback Reggie is back down on the ground trying it again. 

It takes him two more tries, each accompanied by loud grunts of effort, before Reggie clamps the tips of his fingers around a corner of the blanket and yanks it up fully onto the roof with a loud  _ ‘yeeeaahhhh!!!!!’ _

Luke explodes into bright laughter, kicking his legs out, then pulls Reggie down to him. He wraps his arm around his shoulders where he lands half on top of him and gives him a noogie, rubbing his knuckles in his hair. Reggie beams as his hair gets messed up, accomplishment buzzing in his veins. 

“Here you go, Julie,” he offers her the blanket when Luke releases him, smile still happily on his face.

“Thanks, Reggie,” she accepts it, shaking her head but beaming back. God she loves her boys. 

They chat aimlessly as the sun gets lower in the sky, teasing each other and catching up with what’s going on with Willie. Just when the colors of the sky start changing Reggie poofs his guitar into his hands and starts plucking absentmindedly. Alex has moved further up the roof, closer to them, resting his chin on his knees pulled up to his chest. Julie leans back to lie next to where Luke is already on his back, watching the sky. 

“Sometimes I come up here and just stare up at the clouds,” he tells her when she’s comfortable. “If I get lost enough in it, sometimes I feel like I’m flying. Like I can just float up and away and feel what it’s like to be weightless.”

“Have you gone up to the top of one of the skyscrapers?”

Luke hums. “No, that’s a cool idea though.”

“Do it, let me know how it goes.”

Luke shrugs. “Wouldn’t be the same.”

Julie drops her head to the side to look at him. “Why not?” 

Luke turns his head to the side to match her gaze, the corner of his mouth twitching into a shy smile. “This is home.”

Julie’s face feels like it melts as she gazes at him. There isn’t much space between them, maybe a couple of inches, but she knows that even if she were closer she wouldn’t be able to feel him or the natural heat that should be emanating from his body. To be able to touch him, hold his hand, even just lean against him. She pushes down the desire to reach out regardless. Instead she looks back up at the clouds. Luke misses her eyes as soon as they leave him, but he looks up too. 

“That’s my favorite color,” Reggie gestures at the sky as it begins to turn a lightly burnt orange. 

“I thought your favorite color was red.”

“Red is my favorite  _ primary  _ color.”

“As opposed to all colors?”

“Yeah. But like that specific shade of orange is my favorite overall color. I think.”

“You think?”

“Well yeah, it depends on the situation. You don’t have multiple favorite colors?”

“Hmm. I guess. I never really thought about it.”

Between the easy chatter, the strumming of the guitar, and the calming movement of the sky above her, Julie is lulled to sleep right there on the roof. When Luke notices, he takes a moment to smile at her peaceful face, feeling his heart grow a little in his chest. 

“Is she asleep?” Alex asks, making Luke jump even though he whispers it. 

“Yeah I think so,” Luke answers with a split second to recover. 

“That can’t be comfortable,” Reggie shakes his head, frowning down at the roof’s shingles beneath them. Luke frowns too. He hadn’t even thought about that. How could Julie comfortably fall asleep on this hard uneven surface?

“Should we wake her up?” Alex suggests.

“You know if we wake her up we’re not going to be able to get her to go back to bed without a fight,” Reggie chimes in. “It’s band bonding.”

Luke makes an injured sound. “Don’t use my words against me. He’s right though. The minute we wake her up she’s gonna fight her darndest to stay up with us, and she could use the break.”

Now they’re all frowning. 

“But…” Alex starts. Wouldn’t she have a break better if she was on a mattress? She definitely would fight though and she’s already asleep. And she looks so content…. “Okay… I’m gonna at least get her a pillow though.”

“Ooh!” Reggie perks up. “You throw it up this time and I’ll catch it.”

Alex stands up putting one hand in his pocket and one hand up to Reggie. “I’m gonna walk it up normally this time, thanks.” And he poofs out. 

A couple minutes later he shows up at the window and instinctively walks through it, the pillow getting caught on the inside wall and falling out of his grip. 

“Rats,” he breathes and reaches back through, maneuvering so it makes out fully out the window this time. 

“Wouldn’t have happened if you would’ve just thrown it up,” Reggie sings. 

Alex shoots him a look and hands the pillow to Luke, who is now sitting up next to where Julie lays. Luke accepts the pillow, then just stares at it a moment, blankly wondering how he was supposed to get it under her head without being able to actually lift it or waking her up. He winds up just pushing it against the side of her head and her shoulder until Julie moves to readjust her pillow in her sleep and get more comfortable. Luke throws his fists up silently in success and grins, looking up at where Alex still stands. Alex grins too and high fives him before sitting down again. 

The three of them chat idly, laying on the roof and watching the sky change from Reggie’s favorite orange, to greens and blues, and finally to a dark night sky, the Los Angeles lights only letting a few stray stars grace their vision. Eventually they fall into comfortable silence, an off hand comment blown occasionally into the wind. 

Julie has a crick in her neck. She involuntarily twitches, waking up a little, then involuntarily winces, waking her up a little more. She groans a little as she moves, eyes blearily blinking into the darkness. It takes a few moments to register the hard uneven surface under her, and a few more to remember where she is when she looks up to find Luke’s face watching her with the smallest little entertained smile on his face.

“Did I sleep through the sunset?”

Luke grins down at her as she rubs sleep out of her eyes. He goes to swipe some stray hair out of her face, but his fingers go straight through. He returns his hand behind him to lean on and watches her tuck the stray hair behind her ear herself, not noticing that Luke tried first.

“Yeah,” he tells her softly. “You did.”

“You’re also about to sleep through the sunrise.”

Julie jumps at Alex’s voice. He’s back at the edge of the roof, legs swinging and hands resting beneath his head as he lays back. Reggie takes up the space between her and Alex, head upside down next to Alex’s and his knees pitched up next to Julie’s. He wiggles his fingers in a wave at her when she shimmies herself up into a sitting position and stretches her back. She smiles at him sleepily, and they both blink back up at the sky.

Sure enough, the dark night sky is now a deep, beautiful blue, the edges of the horizon on their neighbor’s houses creeping into whites and oranges. Julie falls backward onto her elbows, watching as the sky wakes up with her, bursting to life in vibrant colors, a brief shade of purple making a surprise appearance. They watch in silence, a small smile making its way onto each of their faces without them noticing, Reggie’s is accompanied by a content exhale. Blues grow softer as orange yawns into the city, reflecting shades of red on the few clouds present. Julie lays back down on the last licks of it, sky starting to fade from a pale purple into a pleasant familiar blue, glad she took Luke up on his suggestion. She subconsciously reaches out to him and places her hand through his where it lays in between them. 

With the morning sun warming her she closes her eyes and sighs, feeling the light pleasant heat on her face. She could honestly be content to stay there forever. 

Reggie suddenly shoots up straight, the sudden movement making Julie open her eyes. He looks around almost frantically, confusion written all over his frown. 

“You know what I just noticed? Where’s your satellite dish?”

**Author's Note:**

> literally had one sleep deprived thought on the train home back in january and this happened.
> 
> edit: so I didn't realize when I wrote this that sunset and sunrise are literally 12 hours apart. it's too late. she slept on a roof for 12 hours and her dad didn't go crazy looking for her it's fine


End file.
